Hedge Fund High Frequency Trading Jobs in Demand

High frequency traders are highly sought after according to a story in Advanced Trading, which notes that proprietary trading firms are poaching people with quantitative experience away from exchanges and bulge bracket firms.

Proprietary trading firms are hungry for proven talent and can dangle big upside carrots in front of those who make the switch, given that bonuses at hedge funds are often tied to individual P&L, rather than the performance of the entire firm.

The article notes that automated trading continues to dominate the markets. So much so that several top Wall Street execs are leaving jobs at major firms to take senior roles at newly-formed high frequency trading firms. This reflects a belief, even among traditional Wall Street types, that “black-box” trading represents the future of the markets.

It also means an increasing demand for hedge fund jobs for those with experience in high frequency trading. Candidates coveted by high frequency trading firms have backgrounds in technology and quantitative trading. Many have experience building electronic trading systems for equity markets. They can build a system, understand how to make it work fast and develop models and strategies for execution, according to Joe Long, executive recruiter at I-NET Technologies, a New York-based recruiting firm.